Any laptop/PC wizards out there?

[Mr Panda]

Looking to change hard drive from one laptop to another. Is it just as simple as that or are there other issues?

Have acquired laptop with no HD, hence no windows operating system etc but powers up ok so wanting to swap one from my old laptop which has frazzled motherboard.

Simples or do other things need doing???

 

[mattbrown]

Re:

quite straight forward, assuming the old hdd has the same interface as the new laptop's hdd bay. also some laptop's harddrives are fitted within a caddy before they are fitting within the laptop.

 

[Mr Panda]

Re:

That sounds promising - the HDDs I have are all SATA and have the same clips/attachment cables and I have a spare caddy.

So if the replacement HDD has windows and MS Office for example as previously installed, should everything just fire up as normal? I wasn't sure if the pooter would see the replacement drive instantly........

 

[ajm]

Re:

It may work pretty well or it may fail miserably - it really depends on the hardware differences between the original and new PC. If the drive has any version of Windows earlier than 8 then it's best to boot to safe mode the first time you start it up (hit F8 fast and repeatedly after you press the power button so you get the startup menu to choose safe mode from.) I've found that it's more likely to figure out the new hardware attached and get at least the basic drivers installed than if you just boot it in normal mode, though that will sometimes work too.

If it's Windows 8 or later, you may find that it decides it's not going to work for licensing reasons as later versions of Windows are usually more closely tied to the motherboard - you might be able to work around that by phoning MS and saying you've had to replace the motherboard in your PC.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Re:

Could get complicated, depending on how similar the hardware is, etc.

My two cents..

Get an external drive dock and clone the drive to a new one.

Once you have done that you should be able to boot that up.

If you have two drive bays in the new laptop that would be cool too.

 

[Mr Panda]

Re:

will be windows 7 or maybe Vista

 

[02gf74]

There are two questions here.
1. Can existing drive be fitted to new puter
2. Will the new pc boot up the os installed on the drive?

1. If the drive phisically fits, laptops are usually 2.5 in whereas desktop can be 3.5 in. And had same interface, nowadays it is SATA, a pwer connector and separate data connector the answer is yes.

2. Maybe. Experience has shown me that cloning or swapping drives witb windows os (win 7, i8 and 10) may or may not work.

For cloning drives, find seagate discwizard, is free if one of the drives is seagate brand.

 

[Kerplunk]

Re:

If the HDD is compatible with the new laptop and you're vaguely ok with computers its worth using the sysprep tool to set Windows into OOBE mode before you move the disk across.
https://windows7easy.wordpress.com/2011 ... -a-new-pc/

But always remember the golden rule:

***** BACKUP BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING *****

 

[Mr Panda]

Re:

Well - old my HDD now installed in replacement laptop and all is well. If I feel like pushing my luck I may try a more recent HD and see where that leads :xmas-big-grin: